


the mission

by Amymel86



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Dystopian Future, F/M, Mentions of Rape, but not really, sort of The Handmaid's Tale-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-28 21:21:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20432627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amymel86/pseuds/Amymel86
Summary: A large rat scurried by as Sansa approached what once was a grocery store, back before the segregation.





	the mission

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I'm just as disappointed as you that this isn't a Redamancy or a Velvet update, but this is what my brain wanted to write tonight 🤷♀️

The parking lot looked like a graveyard for vehicles that had forgotten what it was like to rumble with an engine that purred. There were no engines anymore, or seats, or fuel tanks or anything that could be useful. The cars were burnt out carcasses now, metal skeletal beasts that stood sentry on the dark grocery store lot.

In scuffed heeled shoes, Sansa click-clacked her way across the tarmac. Hugging the winter coat over her teeny-tiny dress that stuck to her curves like the thing was sprayed on.

One of the guys huddled around a trash-bin fire wolf whistled after her. "Hey, baby! You lookin' cold. Why don't you come over here so I can warm you up, girl!"

Sansa didn't even glance their way. Having just come back from a rough negotiation with The Brotherhood, she was in no mood for more leering eyes on her body. She'd gone there under her own volition, dressed to distract. It was normally a useful tactic, especially with a group that largely contains men. Turns out their leader, Beric wasn't in the habit if being swayed by a low neckline, a short skirt and a pretty smile though.

A large rat scurried by as Sansa approached what once was a grocery store, back before the segregation. Tapping her knuckles twice on a side entrance, the door opened and Grenn greeted her with a nod of his head. He stepped aside to let her enter. Despite Sansa's failings to negotiate for more ammo with The Brotherhood, she knows that what she tells Robb tonight will ignite that ember of hope within him again. That spark had been dwindling away for far too long now. Taking one last look behind her, Sansa inhales a lungful of cool air before stepping inside.

Her brother has been one of the heads of the resistance ever since President Tywin Lannister started spouting ideas of segregation, separating those in possession of the three most important elements to survive in this world; wealth, power and fertility.

And now she and Robb live on the wrong side of The Trident while those who can pay for a better life with money, influence or the ability to bear children live on the other.

Sansa often hears reports about the other side - the Lannister side. They still have restaurants, they still have stores, they still have schools with children to sit at desks. They still have laws and the means to keep them.

All they have on this side is desperation and their own mortality.

The door to what once was the store floor creaks open as Sansa pushes. The lights are all off of course, but there is an eerie glow coming from the far side where Robb and his men have rearranged the empty cereal and tinned goods aisles to create a little headquarters of sorts.

Sansa's heels barely get to click-clack against the tiled floor before one of her brother's men steps out from the shadows to see who is approaching and escourt her to Robb.

It was Jon this time. "Sansa," he greets with a nod of his head, the rifle he'd scavenged a few months back in his hands. She didn't mind Jon. He's quiet, sure, but at least he looks at her eyes whenever she speaks, and he doesn't just automatically dissmiss her voice because she's a woman. Those grey eyes of his leave her own for a brief moment, widening before they take her all in, figure-hugging mini-dress and all.

"Jon," Sansa acknowledges, walking past him and down the empty frozen goods aisle towards her brother. The freezers are all off and have long been void of anything that passed as food. She could hear Jon walking behind her and imagined his eyes on the length of her legs and the sway of her hips. Sansa paused, bending down to adjust a strap on her heels that didn't need adjusting. Jon's footsteps halted and she heard him clear his throat. When she glanced back at him he swiftly averted his eyes. She couldn't hold back the smirk on her lips if she tried.

_Alright. Enough fun now_, Sansa chastised herself. _This is serious._

Once Sansa reached the area Robb had claimed as his 'office', she saw that her brother was not alone. The 'room' was sectioned off from the rest of the shop floor by empty store shelving, and Robb had brought out the two sofas and coffee table from what was once the staff coffee break room out back. He was sat on one of them now, leant forward, surrounded by his men as they poured over the latest map of checkpoints into Lannister territory.

She's not surprised. Her brother has been obsessed for months and no one would blame him. They'd taken his daughter and they'd taken his wife.

Raids were less common than they used to be. They'd all gotten a little sloppy. There once was a time where everyone was on high alert for one of the patrol vans to come cruising through their patch. You'd always be aware of the best place to hide, wherever you were - your senses sought it out before you'd even realised; that cupboard under the stairs, behind the shed at the bottom of the garden, in that funny little pantry just off the laundry room.

Sansa remembers hiding with her neice once. Little Cat had only just turned one and she and her mother Jeyne had huddled with Sansa inside a wardrobe. They prayed that the sounds of the Lannister soldiers giving her father a beating wouldn't disturb little Cat enough to start to sob as she clung to her shaking mother.

They had been lucky that day.

Poor Jeyne and Cat weren't lucky on that awful day two years later though.

As a child, dear, sweet, smiley little Cat was a prescious comodity, and Jeyne, the woman fertile enough to bear her is seen a equally valuable. They were scooped up as soon they were spotted by the raid van - bundled in the back via gunpoint and driven away to the nearest checkpoint.

Sansa shudders to herself. Everything she's heard about the Lannister regime on the other side tells her that her sweet litte niece was separated from her mother and given to a barren family to be renamed and raised a their own._ She's a Stark, she'll always be a Stark_, Sansa thinks fiercly before her mind turns to her sister-in-law. At best, poor Jeyne has been forcibly remarried so that some rich son of a bitch can have a go at getting her pregnant. At worst, she's been sent to a 'breeding house'.

Sansa gulps. Robb has barely noticed her arrival. Taking the time to look at him now, Sansa thinks he looks so much older than he had done a few months back - back when he still had his family. They should've all fled to Essos when they had the chance. Word is that the scientists over there are pioneering new fertility treatments that could greatly ease the crisis. In truth, Sansa doesn't really care about all that - she just wants to be safe - for her family to be safe.

And together again.

"And they're doubling the guards on checkpoint 12?" Robb asks one of his men, Theon.

"Yeah. Ros says the newbies could be swayed though. They're not regulars at the brothel, but they've definitely visited."

Jon comes to stand beside her as she watches her brother nod his aknowledgment of the new information. He's been trying to plan a way to get his wife and daughter back ever since they were taken. His best bet is to sneak someone into Lannister territory to try and smuggle them out. Of course, Robb wants to do it himself, but after many an interogation, his face is too well known among the guards and soldiers as the face of the resistance.

Someone else will have to do it, and that someone else may well be Sansa.

Jon cleared his throat beside her, causing her brother to finaly look up from his planning. "Sansa," he offers a small smile before he takes her in properly. "Why are you wearing that?"

She took a breath and stepped forward. All his men's eyes are on her. Men's eyes are always on her. "I went to negotiate with The Brotherhood."

Robb sighed. "And?"

"They won't move on their ammo prices."

Robb presses his lips together and nods to himself before his eyes skim her up and down again. "You can't walk around wearing that."

"Nothing happened."

"We live in a fucking lawless state, Sansa. Anything could have happened!"

Sansa rolled her eyes and cocked her hip. "Anyime things look a bit dicey, I just mention who my big brother is and I get left alone." It was true. Her brother and his 'boys' reputation preceeded him.

"Still," Robb huffed, "tell me before you pull something like that again, alright? I'll send Jon or Grenn to go with you."

Sansa glanced back at Jon who gave her a twitch of a smile and a singular nod of his head in confirmation. Something fluttered in her tummy at that smile... or was it at the thought of what she was about to do? The wheel she was about to set in motion...

"Robb, we need to talk."

"Sansa, I'm busy right now." He's always busy - alway trying to think of new way in which he can get his daughter and wife back.

"But, Robb-"

"I can't right now. This is important."

Sansa took a fortifying breath and stepped one solitary step towards the men huddled over the map. "Robb-"

"Damn it, Sansa, can't you see I'm trying to get my family back here?! I'll talk to you about The Brotherhood and ammo later when I-"

"I've bled," Sansa blurted. she willed her face not to turn that blotchy scarlet in the way it tends to do sometimes. She tried to keep her head high even though her knees felt like buckling from under her. Once again, all eyes were turned in Sansa's direction and her heart was just about trying to burst right out of her chest.

"What?" her brother asked.

Sansa inhaled and exhaled before answering. "I've bled - for around seven months now... I'm firtile."

Every face in the room looked dumbfounded. A fertile woman is rare - especially on this side of the river.

Robb was the first to snap out of his stupor. "If any of you even breathe a word of this, I'll string you up by your bollocks, do you understand?" he bellowed to his men. He had good reason to - a fertile woman was a ticket to cross one of the checkpoints into a better life. The Lannisters may be corrupt and immoral in a lot of their practices to repopulate their state, but they hold the sanctity of marriage in high regard. If you apply to cross the river as a married, fertile couple, chances are your wish will be granted.

It used to be that whenever a woman was found to be able to fall pregnant, a celebration was held - she could have a baby! Have a miracle! But now, that sort of knowledge needs to be kept strictly hush-hush. If intellegence makes its way to the Lannister guards, a raid van is dispatched to claim the girl's fertile womb for use in the Lannister state. If that same intelligence reaches the ears of some of the more unsavoury characters around, then a girl can find herself being unwillingly sold off to her new husband so he can buy himself his ticket to cross the river. Sansa shudders for the second time this evening. The Boltons have cornered the market for fertile brides and word is they've always got their ears to the ground looking for fresh stock.

"Jon," Robb calls. Jon steps forward in response. "You will watch over Sansa wherever she goes now, do you hear? Your primary goal in life is to protect her."

Jon is quick to nod. He says nothing.

"Sansa," Robb stands and comes over to take both her hands now. "I'm so sorry."

Sansa wets her lips. "This doesn't have to be a bad thing." Her brother furrows his brow at her. "I can cross the boarder. They'll let me in."

Robb drops her hands. A glint of betrayal flittering across his face. He'd misunderstood. He thought she just wanted to get past the checkpoint and into a better life for herself. He thought she was eager to leave him behind.

That stung.

"I can find Cat and Jeyne," Sansa explained, "I can smuggle them out."

"If you turn up at a checkpoint claiming to be fertile, they'll eaither marry you off or ship you into a breeding house," Theon piped up.

Sansa looked to her brother as she answered. "Not if I'm already married."

There's a silence that falls and Sansa watches the war of emotions play across Robb's face. She knows that he'd never ask this of her. She knows that he would never want to endanger her in an way if he could help it - but she also knows that this is the best shot they've been given since Jeyne and little Cat were taken.

Her brother clenches his jaw before turning towards the group of his men still hunched over the now forgotten map. "Theon," he calls, "you have the best knowledge of Lannister soldier habits, would you be willing?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cley," he called next.

"Yes, sir."

"You have connections with the workforce that could possibly help with the smuggling out side of things? Would you be willing?"

"Yes, sir."

"Er, Robb?" Theon interrupted. "There have been reports of Lannister soldiers being given free reign to do as they please with wives whose husbands seem to be having issues getting them pregnant."

Robb cursed under his breath and the room fell silent again.

"What's the timeframe?" Sansa asks and once again she's drawn everyone's attention. "Well," she looks to each man a little nervously, "they have to allow the couple a certain amount of time to try to conceive together, surely? How long will we have to find Jeyne and Cat before they start putting the pressre on?"

Theon shakes his head. "Couldn't say for sure. Six months to a year?" he shrugs.

That could work. She could find them before then... couldn't she?

Robb managed to gather himself. "Ok, Theon, I think you should be the one to-"

"With respect, sir," a deep voice interrupts from behind her, making little goosebumps prickle along her arms. Everyone turns to look at the source - Jon. "If Sansa is the one willing to risk all this - willing to marry one of your men to help you find your family, I think she ought to be the one to choose who it is she'll be forced to marry," he'd been staring directly at her as he spoke until he finally tore his gaze away to look at his boss, "... don't you?"

Robb let out a long breath beside her but Sansa was still watching Jon and the way he offered her a soft smile. "You're right," her brother admitted. "_Shit_. You're right." He scrubbed his hands down his face. Sansa thinks he hasn't had a decent night's sleep in months. "Sansa, I'm sorry. Is there... is there any of this motley crew that you'd prefer to go with you and be your husband until the mission is complete?"

Sansa's eyes sought out Jon again. "Well, that depends on how many are willing."

Jon smirked at that. She liked that smirk.

"Alright," Robb said, "all those willing to marry my sister, protect my sister, and to not fucking touch my sister while you're on a seriously fucking dangerous mission to return my wife and daughter, say aye."

There was a murmuring of 'ayes' from behind her but Sansa was still facing Jon. He was taking his time to hold her gaze as he nodded once, slowly before saying "aye," in that deep, raspy voice of his.

Sansa held his stare and licked at her lips. "I choose Jon," she proclaimed, "he'll keep me safe. I trust him."


End file.
